Mazda CX-5 continues to lead the SUV sales charge

While the Mazda CX-9 lapped up the glory of being crowned 2017 Wheels Car of the Year, its smaller sibling, the Mazda CX-5 continued its reign in the all-important sales stakes.

Mazda’s second most popular model after the Mazda 3 was the best-selling SUV throughout last year and started 2017 in positive territory with 1924 sales last month, up from 1906 in December and 1750 in January 2016.

The Japanese carmaker has maintained its mid-sized soft-roader’s popularity , despite an all-new model being on the horizon, by adding more kit to its already well-endowed standard equipment list, including auto braking and blind-spot alert.

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As well as topping the SUV chart it came in at seventh overall, just behind the Holden Commodore

The CX-5 led the charge that saw SUV sales increase by 3.2 percent to almost match car sales.

SUV sales accounted for 40.2 percent of the 84,910 cars sold last month, while sedans, hatchbacks and wagons made up 41.1 percent of sales.

The Nissan X-Trail had a good start to the year, thanks to some sharp drive-away pricing that saw its sales jump by 561 to 1759, to take second place.

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The Hyundai Tucson, which had incredible success last year after its update was in third place with 1678 sales, down from 2065 this time last year but up from 1384 in December.

It was also an excellent month for the Holden Captiva 7, with sales skyrocketing to 1251, up from 739 in December, on the back of considerable plate clearance discounts making it one of the few seven-seaters under $30,000.

Apart from the Captiva, the only other large SUV, and sole serious off-roader, in the top-10 was the Toyota LandCruiser Prado, whose sales dipped slightly to 1063 with January being a quiet time for fleet sales.

For the record, 602 Mazda CX-9s, were sold in January, down from 799 in December.

* Preliminary VFACTS sales figures